Suspect in Staten Island dad's disappearance alleges cops tried to beat confession out of him

The prime suspect in the bizarre disappearance and presumed slaying of a Staten Island dad charges that police have spent the last four days trying to beat a confession of him.

Angelo Nesimi’s lawyer, Mario Gallucci, alleges detectives pounded his client, forced him to lay in his own feces and threw him down a flight of stairs while he was in custody.

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He also charged that a detective posed as a doctor to try to trick Nesimi into confessing that he killed Michael Stewart, 40, who disappeared Dec. 20 and is presumed to have been fatally stabbed.

Nesimi, 33, who was taken into custody at his West Brighton home Saturday, was arraigned Wednesday on charges that he assaulted his girlfriend, Zammara Sanchez, and wrecked a police precinct interview room.

Michael Stewart is presumed to have been stabbed to death. (DCPI)

Investigators have been looking for Stewart’s body, and for the past two days have scoured the headquarters of Formica Construction, which is owned by Nesimi’s landlord.

The case started unraveling when Nesimi’s girlfriend dialed 911 to report a nonexistent car accident, then started ranting to responding EMTs that her boyfriend had killed a man.

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At his arraignment Wednesday in Staten Island criminal court, where Nesimi appeared in handcuffs and wearing a blue hospital shirt, Assistant District Attorney Jeff Curiale showed the judge photos of Sanchez’s injuries to her left arm, near her elbow, cuts on to her back, injuries to the front and left side of her head and the injuries to her hand.

Prosecutors say she was assaulted with a metal object, which investigators haven’t found yet.

Gallucci, however, presented pictures of his own, contending they proved cops roughed up Nesimi.

”Both of his eyes are black and blue, his left arm is completely black and blue. There are bruises down his back, down his hips and down to his legs,” Gallucci said. “His injuries are consistent with being tossed off the table, off the walls. At one point, he was told to sleep in his own feces.”

Angelo Nesimi is carried horizontally from his apartment on North Mada Avenue in Staten Island on Saturday afternoon after a four-hour standoff with police. (Mary DiBiase Blaich)

Gallucci added that a detective dressed like a doctor told a hospitalized Nesimi that patient confidentiality meant they could speak in confidence about where he dumped Stewart’s body.

When Nesimi was arrested at N. Mada Ave, “he barricaded himself in the bathroom on the first floor for four hours and did not open the door. When his girlfriend finally opened the door to (Emergency Service Unit officers) they found a vent open with a large sum of cash next to it,” Curiale said.

“His cell (phone) was found in the toilet. A search warrant found a scale with drug residue. The warrant was not for the drugs but we are currently drafting a separate search warrant,” Curiale added. “He sells drugs out of the second floor. That’s what he does with his life. I don’t know that he’s ever had an actual job.”

Criminal Court Judge David Frey ordered Nesimi held on $100,000 bail for the assault charge, plus another $5,000 for wrecking the interview room. He returns to court Friday.

Detectives and NYPD K-9 units continued their search of Formica Construction’s headquarters near the Bayonne Bridge in Port Richmond Wednesday, looking for material ripped from the apartment.

The construction company has a checkered past. In December 2003, a worker was killed when a 15-foot deep trench dug for sewer pipes collapsed on top of him. The worker was decapitated in a panicked rescue attempt using a tractor. The business owner, Kenneth Formica, who helped dig the trench, was sentenced to serve 16 weekends in jail.

The business was also slapped with $121,000 in fines after a worker dismantling a Staten Island car dealership died in a ceiling collapse in November 2014.